Consistently appearing on US and UK best-seller lists, C.J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake mysteries have earned considerable critical acclaim, including a CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award. At the behest of a former servant to Catherine Parr, Shardlake travels to Portsmouth to investigate claims of unspeakable crimes committed upon a young ward of the court. There, Shardlake uncovers disturbing evidence even as England’s continuing war with France rages around him.

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Publisher's Summary

Consistently appearing on US and UK best-seller lists, C.J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake mysteries have earned considerable critical acclaim, including a CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award. At the behest of a former servant to Catherine Parr, Shardlake travels to Portsmouth to investigate claims of unspeakable crimes committed upon a young ward of the court. There, Shardlake uncovers disturbing evidence even as England’s continuing war with France rages around him.

This is an interestingly written story that has depth and characters. It starts slow and draws the listener until the listener is hooked. Not willing to waste time on moderate or mediocre performances or stories, this story has me looking forward to the next chapter, the next section and for the other books by the author and reader.

This is my first book by Sansom, but it certainly will not be the last. His attention to detail, outstanding character development and knowledge of law during the Tudor reign is remarkable. The mystery kept me on edge.

C J Sansom has delivered another wonderful Matthew Shardlake mystery. The quality of these mysteries has, for me, varied from book to book with some (like Dissolution) keeping their secrets until the end while others (like Dark Fire) requiring far less effort for the reader to solve. This offering actually contains four distinct mysteries and Matthew has taken on the chore of answering all of them and, as part of solving them, becomes far too obsessed to be healthy. For the first time in all of these books I lost patience with Matthew Shardlake. Readers might expect him to place himself in some danger in trying to solve a mystery but here Matthew willfully ignores advice he knows is best, disobeys his Queen and purposefully antagonizes people who can do him harm. This is not the Matthew I have known throughout these books. He has always seemed well-centered and cautious, but not here.

On the positive side the main mystery, which involves the welfare of a child, is probably the most opaque and the resolution took me completely by surprise. The other mysteries, while less central to the main story line, were also interesting in their own way with some answers being more surprising than others.

Rating this book has been a problem for me. The mysteries are sufficiently interesting and difficult to solve to give this book a high rating but Matthew's behavior, which disturbed me more than it should have, made this book far less enjoyable than it could have been. In the end the wonderful narration by Steven Crossley was enough for me to give it 5 stars in spite of Matthew's erratic and disturbing behavior. One can only hope that the character sees his obsessiveness and returns to the more normal behavior pattern of the previous books.

I love the Shardlake mysteries - and the Shardlake character. I love the setting in Henry the 8th's England - and all the tiny details that author Sansom uses to make his books come alive. I love everything about these books - except that it takes Author Sansom too darned long to write a sequel! ;D The Shardlake series is intriguing in it's unusual 'murders' and 'victims', as well as all the day-to-day characters that fatten up the scenery a bit more. Reader Steven Crossley does an excellent job of voicing the characters. Now that I've listened to this latest book, I'll have to wait another couple of years to hear more - and THAT is the only reason I didn't give this title a 5-star rating! ;D

Overall I love C.J. Sansom's books. I love the historical details, the wonderful interweaving of fact and fiction, and the great plots. Heartstone, however, was about two hours too long with a few too many repeat visits to the "scenes of the crimes." And by the end of the book, I must say that Shardlake's constant jumping to incorrect conclusions, need to always be right, and gullibility finally began to wear on me. I won't abandon him and look forward to the next in the series but with a bit less excitement. I am pleased that in the last couple of books the author has stopped peppering every line of dialogue with "Gesu," "Christ's nails," and other Tudor expletives. Not sure that I like the "f" bomb with is now often dropped instead and wonder if it would have been widely used as a curse at the time. Steven Crossely, as always, is a superb narrator.

I've liked all of the Shardlake books for their history and cleverness, Crossely is a great narrator. He, of course, is Matthew Shardlake, I wouldn't be able to listen to a Shardlake book if Crossely wasn't the narrator. I did think this book was a bit too long.

The development of the characters is superb, with riveting details of the times of Henry VIII. A truly exceptional historical novel.

What about Steven Crossley’s performance did you like?

He is consistent and performs the characters with animation that is pleasing to the ear. His performance remains one of the best in the audible book genre.

Any additional comments?

Although previous reviews have criticized the detail inherent in this novel, I found the details to add character and color to the story. At no time did I feel the story was dragged down by the details of the journey to Portsmouth, or of the colorful characters along the way. The narrative of the sea battle is by far one of the best oral battle accounts I've ever heard. Superb!

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